13 things I WON'T miss about Indonesia

1. Unwanted Attention
Those people who make fun of you in a language they don't think you understand, who say rude things and laugh with their friends, being pointed at or stared at is not appreciated! Easy enough to deal with on a good day, but when you're sleepy/in bad mood it's not gonna work out well. Not only does it make you feel awkward and uncomfortable, but it also makes you feel like a caged zoo animal.

2. Photo Mister!
I'm sure I have taken thousands of photos with strangers over the years. The first few times it happened I felt like a celeb and loved the attention but it quickly grew old. I can understand why people would want to take photos with me if we'd had a chat for a bit, but when a stranger comes up to me and the first thing they say is "foto Mister?" it drives me crazy. Joy and I have gone to lengths of running across a park, climbing some children's play equipment and speaking in Spanish to avoid awkward photos with strangers.

a few examples of photos with random people

3. Asian-style queuing
I don't know how many times someone pushed in front of me in a queue until I learnt how to be aggressive. If I know someone was there before me I'll let them go before me (Aussie style) but I get some weird looks from everyone else around me.

4. Being "interviewed" by strangers
Yea I don't know you but you're going to ask me if I have a husband, why I don't have a husband, what my religion is, what my salary is, what I eat for breakfast, what my home address is, my preference in men... But I've started just giving different answers every time. 

5. The struggle to stay healthy
Yea, good luck eating well in Surabaya. The preferred snack is gorengan ("fried stuff"). You can get fruit juice, oh wait it's not healthy because it's full of sugar and condensed milk. They even put sugary peanut sauce on their salad (gado-gado is awesome though) and drown their Pizza Hut salad in thousand island dressing (seriously, if you ever go to Pizza Hut in Indo, sit next to the salad bar, it never fails to entertain. I swear this should be a recommended activity in the Lonely Planet). Anyway, in Australia I'd stay fit by taking a walk in the evening, not so fun here due to points 1 and 2.... 
I am kind of dealing with this eating well thing by cooking for myself but still it's a trip to 3 supermarkets just to get my ingredients for the week (seriously took visits to 3 supermarkets to find a potato). It's not easy but definitely worthwhile.

6. Saying goodbye
Yea, it becomes part of the lifestyle with people staying for only a year. Some of the goodbyes were okay, but some were particularly gut-wrenching. Eventually you learn to have faith in the fact that if that person is important, you'll find a way to keep in touch but it still hurts like a bitch every single time.

7. The struggle to find alcohol
This never was a problem before but the laws changed and now buying beer is a nightmare. You used to be able to get it at every convenience store but now you've got to go to specific supermarkets every time you want to have a few chilled out beers after work.

Stocking up is important

As is taking precautions to minimise the risk of your housemates drinking your beer

8. Indonesian doctors
Doctor: You have sakit maag
Me: I don't believe in sakit maag so I can you give me a different diagnosis?
This conversation happens every time. It's either that or masuk angin (enter wind). And then they give you 5 different medications to keep track of EVERY TIME and some of them are for things you don't even have and every time I go to the hospital I just cry because of how hopeless it is. 


9. People smoking in nightclubs
Yea, probably awesome for smokers and terrible for everyone else. Coming home with hair that reeks of smoke and having to wash it 3 times to get it out is getting old to be honest.

Even the anti-smoking campaign guy makes smoking look cool so  what hope do we have?

10. The rain
The rain literally stops everything. Getting to work by motorbike in the rain is awful. Everything is awful. Everything! And I think once a year it seems to be so bad that it floods which SUCKS because the traffic is awful and you've gotta swim home because good luck getting any vehicle down the street. I do look pretty good in my raincoat/ astronaut suit.

11. Shoe shopping
I don't know why but shoe shopping is always a nightmare here somehow. My shoe size is pretty average in Australia but seems to be too big here as there are never any shoes in my size. 

12. Cockroaches/ rats
 I feel pretty sick seeing rats running around especially in my front garden. But having a cat makes me feel a bit better than about the rats, not that I know what my cat would do if there was a rat in our house, considering the rats are almost as big as him.

Having a rest after a long day of being responsible for keeping rats out of the house

13. Airports
I know I will still spend time in airports when I leave here but I feel like I've spent a significant amount of time to airports over the last 3 years as it is necessary to fly almost everywhere in this country. For starters, airports are horrible overly air conditioned places which are over-priced and boring. As someone who took 24 flights last year and expects to take at least 20 this year, I have lived it and I am over it. More often than not the flight is delayed but actually it gets to a point where you find out your flight is delayed 3 hours and you just say "Hooray! It's Lion Air and it's not canceled! It's only delayed!".